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Who We are

We're a fast-growing community of top journalists and technologists, working together to build a home for trustworthy, sustainable journalism.

We built our careers at places like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, The Guardian, El Pais, Politico, NPR, The Atlantic, The New Republic, New York Magazine, New York Daily News, and DNAinfo.

do more than consume

CVL tokens are your voting and purchasing power in the Civil economy.

Civil is a blockchain-based economy that involves the direct, peer-to-peer exchange of value between journalists who report articles, make videos, record podcasts, and the people who read, watch, listen and support their work.

“We need to get CVL tokens into the hands of people who are ready to roll up their sleeves and help build Civil into a thriving home for independent journalism.”

—Matthew Iles, CEO of The Civil Media Company

help build a community for real journalism

Civil is a place for ethical, high-quality journalism. The Civil Constitution defines ethical journalism on Civil. People can use CVL tokens to vote and thwart bad actors or propose improvements to how it works.

“The beauty of Civil is that it's community-driven. But in the event you feel the Civil Constitution has been violated, you can appeal to the Civil Council. We'll hear your case.”

Choose how you CVL

The value of each CVL token may change over time, but the dollar equivalents required for certain actions remain constant.

The 100 Percent Pledge: 100 percent of contributions to the CVL sale will go directly to the Civil Foundation, the nonprofit entity that will provide grants to Civil Newsrooms and produce original research.

Participant

Good for testing the waters

$10

to $999

Includes:

Vote for/against Newsrooms that are being challenged

Earn CVL for participating

Pay your favorite journalists with CVL

Convert CVL into cash

Your entire contribution supports newsrooms

Voting with tokens makes you eligible to earn money in the Civil economy. You can never lose tokens in a vote.

Contributor

Good for going deeper

$1,000

to $9,999

Same as Participant plus:

Start or back Newsrooms ($1,000 per Newsroom)

Challenge bad actor Newsrooms ($1,000 per challenge)

Appeal to the Civil Council ($1,000 per appeal)

These actions require depositing tokens as a ‘stake.’ You can earn large rewards or lose tokens depending on community votes.

Benefactor

Good for stewarding

$10,000

to $2,000,000

Same as Contributor plus:

Support potentially hundreds of Newsrooms

Kickstart new projects for the journalism industry

Exercise significant voting power

Civil Media vets all purchasers of $10,000 or above.

CVL is not required to simply read and support journalism on Civil. Newsrooms are free to ask for reader support in any form they choose.